Lockheed Martin plans to make its most powerful military laser yet, 500 kilowatts::The planned laser will be in the 500-kilowatt range. Weapons like these can defend a ship or base against drones or other projectiles.
for those wondering, the (fictional) laser in the 1985 film Real Genius that could vaporize a human target from space was 9.4 megawatts.
Thanks, I was wondering just that.
I thought someone might. I just happened to be watching it last night, so I remembered the power rating of the laser.
For anyone wondering, it would take 128.7 Real Genius laser beam blasts worth of energy to make one time travel jump in Back to the Future’s Delorean.
Great Scott!
Great flick
I wonder if the engineers have a jar in the laboratory, where you have to put in a dollar every time you refer to the laser as a “death ray.”
Or for doing a Dr. Evil “laser”.
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Phased plasma rifle in the 500kw range.
Yeah this is what we need… More weapons to kill eachother.
Lasers like this are mostly useful as defensive weapons. They are good at shooting incoming artillery shells, missiles, and small drones. They don’t have the range to be an effective offensive weapon. Kinetic effectors dominate there.
If these existed today, many fewer Ukrainian civilians would be dead from Russian drones and missiles.
